This trip was our second to the Riu Santa Fe. The Riu Santa Fe is a very large property (holds upwards of 2500 guests). The rooms are spread out over 7 buildings with building 7 being the only one on beach – the rest are in behind the Riu Palace. We did a last minute booking for this trip to celebrate a milestone birthday.

This was our first time flying out of Toronto (normally we fly from Ottawa). I have to say I was extremely impressed with all the Sunwing Airline staff. Each one we encountered were friendly, smiled and even chatted with us. That’s not what you get when you fly with them from Ottawa!

Room Number:
7060

Room Block:
7

Arrival:
After the 45 minute drive, we arrived at the resort. Once we arrived at the resort, a Riu rep came on the bus and gave everyone a registration card to complete. It was meant to keep us on the bus while they unloaded the luggage. We opted to get off the bus and soak up some sun and fill it in outside. Once that was completed we walked up to the makeshift registration desk, turned the form in and got our room key and towel cards. I had forgotten that this hotel had moved to digital safes, so no safe key is needed (1 less thing to lose!).

Rooms:
I had emailed ahead and asked for ground floor in building 7. Of course they don’t guarantee anything but we were pleased we were able to get building 7. We were ground floor without a water view – which is fine as you are only in the room to sleep so who cares really about the view.

Our housekeeping person was good. The room was cleaned every day and that’s what matters the most. For some reason they flipped the main power switch nearly each day after cleaning, but the room didn’t take too long to cool off again once you were back and turned the power back on.

Given our room was ground floor and the fact they were hit by the hurricane last fall, I was pleased to see that there was no visible signs of possible damage in the room. Actually I saw no evidence at all on the resort of a hurricane having taken place – they’ve made sure to fix all signs of that.

Restaurants and Bars:
Food
The resort has 2 buffets for breakfast and lunch and 1 large buffet for supper. This trip we opted to have breakfast at the main buffet all but once. While there is nothing wrong with the smaller selection at the building 7 buffet, the main one does have more selection and the food was hotter.

For the first few days they had a BBQ going next to the pool – awesome burgers! The other days we did the buffet – some were more challenging than others only as the food never seemed hot unless you were able to get something as it came off the grill.

Supper was always a different theme each night at the buffet so that was good. We got reservations for the Asian and Italian restaurant once. We really enjoyed the Asian – you could fill yourself up on the appetizers alone! Neither of us liked the Italian which is odd as we’ve enjoyed it at other Riu’s (granted it’s been a few years).

Last time we were there we found the food on some days to be overly salty but didn’t notice that this trip which was nice.

Snacks – The sports bar is open 24 hours and is stocked with fruit, sandwiches and microwavable food (burgers, and hot dogs).

NOTE: Supper at the Buffet: Men can wear shorts but must have a shirt with sleeves. They are quite diligent in sending men away who have tank tops on. For the a-la cartes men are able to wear shorts. Not sure if that’s a summer thing or not as I’m used to seeing pants required at the a-la cartes.

Bars
There are at least 7 bars, with one being open 24 hours. There are 2 swim up bars at Building 7 (along with the amazing infinity pool), at least one at the other pool, 2 in the main courtyard, one at the entertainment area and the 24 hour Sports Bar.

We always asked for the top shelf liquors and got them no problem. Definitely not watered down.

During the day around the pool they’d have a mobile bar stopping by with a limited selection – this was a nice touch.

Beach/Pools/Grounds:
The Beach
The beach looks nice, but given how hot it was while we were there, the sand would burn your feet if you were barefoot. The ocean in front of this resort has an extremely strong undertow and as a result there are red flags flying all the time.

Pools
We made use of the infinity pool each day of our stay. We would normally get down there about 10:00 or so and never had a problem getting a couple chairs together (umbrella’s are a different story). The resort was still near full capacity so I suspect it’s normal to be able to find loungers.

There is also another pool next to the infinity pool that has built in sun loungers and is where they do the water volleyball.

We never ventured to the main pool so I can’t comment on that one other that to say there appeared to be a lot of loungers available there as well.

Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
Entertainment
We did see some of the shows and they were good. We tend to avoid the “embarrass the guest” nights and go for the real show nights.

Activities
While a schedule of activities was posted we opted to not participate this visit – normally we do something. For the most part the Animation team didn’t bother with us either (maybe that’s why we didn’t do anything). The DJ (Johnny from Vancouver) was there last time and we chatted with him a few times.

Trips
Other than relaxing by the pool, the only trip we did was to go into town and wonder around. There are some good deals in the mall – which is still being repaired from the hurricane. Getting to or from downtown is a $14.00 US taxi ride.

Other Comments:
Last time we were there I saw 3 cockroaches, this time though there was none to be seen. I was on the look out for them and never saw any this time which was fine by me.

We didn’t make use of the free WiFi (90 minutes a day in a 24 hour period). There were lots of people at the pools and nightly shows hooked up to the internet.

Last time we were there we had a noisy neighbour, this time we heard them once return to their room. It’s not that they were overly loud just the way the doorways are designed – noise echo’s. Can’t say we were kept up by noise at all this trip.

This review is a bit late as I was having issues getting past the confirmation code on this site.

This trip was our first to the Riu Santa Fe, but our 7th stay at a Riu. The Riu Santa Fe is a very large property (over 1000 rooms). The rooms are spread out over 7 buildings with building 7 being the only one on beach – the rest are in behind the Riu Palace. This was the first time we’ve booked our Air and Hotel separately – we had no problems with our transfers or reservations.

Room Block:
Building 7

Arrival:
After the 45 minute drive, we arrived at the resort. Upon arrival we were checked right in and even though they had to process payment the process went quite quick. We finished filling out a partially pre-filled registration form, and were given our room keys and towel cards. This hotel has moved to digital safes so no safe key is needed (1 less thing to lose!).

Rooms:
I had emailed ahead and asked for ground floor in building 7. Upon arrival we were scheduled for building 5, however due to a lower occupancy (only about 40%) and my Gold Riu Class card, we were given a free upgrade to Ocean View. We were right in the middle of Building 7, looking out at the 3 pools that ended at the beach.

Our housekeeping person was good. The room was clean every day and that’s what matters the most. For some reason they flipped the main power switch each day after cleaning, but the room didn’t take too long to cool off again once you were back and turned the power back on.

We did notice that while the in-room mini bar and fridge were to be restocked every other day, ours was done daily. Each afternoon when we’d wonder back from the pool it was fully stocked!

Restaurants and Bars:
The resort has 2 buffets for breakfast and lunch and 1 large buffet for supper. The first morning we had breakfast at the main buffet and the rest of the time we had breakfast and lunch at the building 7 buffet. It’s a smaller buffet but always managed to find something to eat. There were a couple days that fish was the main item at lunch which made it harder for me to find something but I still did.

Supper was always a different theme each night at the buffet so that was good. We got reservations for the Mexican and Italian restaurant once. We tried for the Steakhouse and Asian but they were full and as it’s the low guest time they weren’t open each night.

The only real complaint that I had about the food was that there were days in which it seemed one of the chefs used too much salt in some of the dishes – normally some of the soups and or gravies. Otherwise the food was always good.

Snacks – The sports bar is open 24 hours and is stocked with fruit, sandwiches and microwavable food (burgers, and hot dogs).

NOTE: Supper at the Buffet: Men can wear shorts but must have a shirt with sleeves. We did see men in tank tops turned away. For the a-la cartes men are to wear pants, however we did see some men in shorts – not sure if it was due to the summer heat that they relaxed the rules or if they are generally lax about this.

There are at least 6 bars, with one being open 24 hours. There are 2 swim up bars at Building 7 (along with the amazing infinity pool), at least one at the other pool – perhaps 2, 2 in the main courtyard and the 24 hour Sports Bar.

We always asked for the top shelf liquors and got them no problem. Definitely not watered down.

During the day around the pool they’d have a mobile bar stopping by with a limited selection – this was a nice touch.

Beach/Pools/Grounds:
The Beach
The beach looks nice, but given how hot it was while we were there, the sand would burn your feet if you were barefoot. The ocean in front of this resort has an extremely strong undertow and as a result there are red flags flying all the time. We did venture into the water once and the water literally knocked me over and rolled me up the beach! Towards the end of our stay we saw waves that had to be close to 15 feet high crashing into the beach.

Pools
We made use of the infinity pool each day of our stay. The pool is huge! Given it was a slow time of year, the towel wars were not in use (at least not blatantly) and we never had an issue getting front row chairs at around 10AM so we didn’t worry.

There is also another pool next to the infinity pool that has built in sun loungers and is where they do the water volleyball.

We never ventured to the main pool so I can’t comment on that one other than to say it’s the quiet one as there are no animation team members at that pool.

Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
Entertainment
The resort offered live singers each night between supper and the evening show, they were okay – not something I’d buy a ticket for, but better than nothing. We did see some of the shows and they were good. We tend to avoid the “embarrass the guest” nights and go for the real show nights.

Activities
The Animation team posted a schedule of activities going on throughout the day outside of the buffets. Between us we took part in the lazy games, dart tournaments, horse-shoes, and bingo. These guys work hard and several of them would stop over and chat with us for a bit while other ones just kept to themselves.

Trips
Other than relaxing by the pool, the only trips we did were to go into town a couple times and wonder around. There are some good deals in the mall but you can also get the same deals in the flea market area too. Walked around the marina – there are sure some nice looking boats docked there! Getting to or from downtown is a $12.00 US taxi ride.

Other Comments:
I’ve seen people mention cockroaches in other reviews, I saw a total of 3 the entire trip – 2 were in the hallways of building 7 and one in our bathroom (which met an untimely death). Never once did I see one near food or drink areas. My only concern was bringing any back home with me and all we did was shake everything out before we packed up and nothing was found.

We didn’t make use of the free WiFi (90 minutes a day in a 24 hour period). I did see a few people talking to the front desk as their connections were constantly being dropped. Not sure if that’s typical for the resort or if it was technical issues that day.

We had a great time. All the staff were friendly and those who spoke English would often stop and chat with us. The only guest issue we had was a noisy neighbour who went for a week of partying and would slam doors and yell up and down the hallway at any hour of the night.

Excellent Resort ... We've stayed at several resorts in the past and the Riu Santa Fe by far exceeded our holiday expectations.

Rooms:
Upgrade to the ocean view. the rooms were very nice, clean and comfortable. Waking in the morning to the Pacific sunrise was breathless everyday.

Restaurants and Bars:
Variety and quality were fantastic. vacationing with a child is sometimes challenging but the there was plenty of choice for everyone

Beach/Pools/Grounds:
Beach is unfit for swimming but the several pools and proximity make up for rough undertow.

Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
Tours were well organized and the occasional venture into town was fun. A short taxi ride into Cabos San Lucas was a great way to check out the marina and some local bars.

Other Comments:
Fantastic resort - Depending on the building for your room it may be a bit of a walk to breakfast but ... Your on vacation and the landscaping makes it a nice walk between tequilas.